We’ve been in the area around and south of Perth for the last few days. Now we’re heading north and finally have some spare time to recap the things we’ve seen and done so far. I’ll start with our tour to the south of Western Australia.
Our first stop south of Perth is
Busselton, where we visit the Busselton Jetty, the longest pier in the southern hemisphere: Almost 2 km of wood. It has been destroyed more than once by fires, storms and cyclones, but has always been rebuilt. There is even a small train on top of the pier and an underwater observatory at the end, but we just walk down the pier on our own and enjoy the beautiful scenery and the fresh breeze.
While heading further south we encounter the first forest fire. It’s a controlled one but nonetheless there is a lot of smoke and fire right by the side of the road.
When we arrive at Pemberton, the sun has already gone down, but we still need a place to spend the night. So we decide to check out the nearest national park. The road into the national park starts quite wide and surfaced, but soon it transforms into a narrow, bumpy dirt track. We are quite sure that this is not covered by our rental car’s policy, but it is a one way road, so there is no possibility to go back. We even see a kangaroo jumping down the road in front of us and follow it for a while, before it leaves the road again.
Finally we discover the camp site in the pitch black forest. There are even some people around. Who would have thought that?
After a very quiet night, we head to the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree, the highest climbable tree in the world! The way up is made of reinforcement bars that are drilled into the tree. On the top, at a height of 75 m, is a viewing platform from where we have a stunning view of the forest.
The next sight – the Tree Top Walk – is almost a bit disappointing. It is only 40 meters high, expensive, quite short and doesn’t even have explanations of the trees and animals you see from up there. It just doesn’t feel so great after having climbed the enormous Bicentennial Tree before.
